Tories lurching from 'one City spiv to the next in their search for a Treasurer'

With the resignation of his party treasurer, David Cameron is facing his second major crisis over Tory donors since becoming Prime Minister.

‘The Conservatives have lurched from one City spiv to the next in their search for a Treasurer,’ said Lib Dem peer and millionaire businessman Lord Oakeshott. ‘The last one had to resign before he had even taken the job.’

Indeed, among senior members of Cameron’s own party there was barely controlled anger yesterday over the fact that he had failed to learn from the disastrous appointment of Peter Cruddas’s predecessor, David ‘Spotty’ Rowland, who was also forced to resign in disgrace.

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It was nearly two years ago, in June 2010, that the party announced Mr Rowland was taking over the role. Yet within two months – after disclosures in this newspaper about his high living and aggressive business tactics – he had gone, his reputation in tatters along with any hopes he had of a peerage.

A legendary figure in the City, Mr Rowland had risen to amass an estimated fortune of £730million, making him the 25th richest person in Britain. But his impoverished background could not have been more different from the millionaire’s lifestyle he later became accustomed to.

The son of a London scrap metal dealer, the young Rowland’s prospects looked bleak. He left school before he had sat a single O-level. As a 15-year-old he was convicted of petty larceny at Wimbledon juvenile court for having stolen goods totalling £2.

Yet he dramatically turned his life around and by the age of just 18 had bought his first house. Five years later he was a millionaire.

His business career in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s often involved the aggressive takeover of other firms. In the late 1980s Mr Rowland helped fund a takeover of Edinburgh Hibernian, parent of Hibernian Football Club.

Cash for access: Peter Cruddas in his London office. The Conservative party co-chairman has resigned after he was filmed apparently offering access to David Cameron in return for large donations

But the deal turned sour when the company went into receivership – after he had asked thousands of fans to put their money into the club. That led to him being attacked as a ‘shady’ financier in a House of Commons motion.

He used one of his trusts to buy the
upmarket estate agents Chesterton, only for it, too, to go into
receivership after 200 years of trading.

'[Lord Feldman] has dropped us in an even bigger mess than Rowland'

His name also became linked to one of the worst industrial pollution scandals in America during the 1980s.

Mr Rowland had bought a big lead smelting plant in Idaho where an accident had led to pollution damage which resulted in local children suffering acute respiratory health problems. Though the accident took place long before he bought the company, the firm was still obliged to help clean up the damage.

Yet he was accused of ‘looting’ tens of millions of dollars from the company which should have been spent on the clean-up operation and diverting funds into a property deal in New Zealand.

His spokesman insisted that the allegations were unsubstantiated and the case never went to court.

Even Mr Rowland’s private life was
unconventional in a Tory Party that once prided itself on the commitment
to the traditional family. He had five children by two women and one of
the children with his then mistress Linda – whom he later married – was
born five years before he divorced his first wife, Sheila.

In August 2010, the then newly appointed treasurer was pictured with an attractive blonde on his knee during a boozy dinner in Antigua. His wife was nowhere to be seen.

Mr Rowland had met his glamorous companion, Italian-born estate agent Dominique D’Aloia, 55, just hours earlier while on an investment visit to the Caribbean island.

So how on earth did such an unlikely character become the treasurer of the Tory Party?

Before he took up the appointment, Lord [Andrew] Feldman, the joint chairman of the Conservative Party, who is one of Mr Cameron’s oldest friends, subjected him to a ‘due diligence’ test to establish whether he was a suitable character to be Tory treasurer. It was clearly not a very thorough test.

In preparation for his high-profile position, Mr Rowland first had to tidy up his own tax affairs.

After 40 years living as a tax exile in Guernsey, where he had entertained Prince Andrew, he returned to Britain shortly before the 2010 general election so that he could start making political donations.

He moved into a house in Mayfair and pumped £2.7million into the Tories’ campaign war chest. He was the party’s largest donor in 2010.

But after his appointment the Mail’s
revelations about his business dealings and private life made his
position as treasurer untenable and he resigned two months after his
appointment was made public, citing business pressures.

Responsibility for the latest own
goal on party funding rests yet again with Lord Feldman, who was meant
to carry out ‘due diligence’ tests on Mr Cruddas just as he was meant to
have done on Mr Rowland.

‘He assured us the proper due diligence tests had been carried out,’ said one senior Tory last night. ‘Instead he’s dropped us in an even bigger mess than Rowland.’

Lord Feldman, who has been close to Mr Cameron since their time as undergraduates at Oxford University, is no stranger to controversy.

He was formerly chairman of the ‘Leader’s Group’, which used to invite businessmen to pay £50,000 to meet Mr Cameron for lunch in his Commons office during his time in Opposition and be kept up to date with policy developments.

The gatherings breached the rules of Parliament as party political fundraising is not permitted in the House of Commons. In 2007 Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, rebuked Mr Cameron who apologised ‘unreservedly’ and said he would never make the same mistake again.

Yet if Mr Cruddas is to be believed Mr Cameron made exactly that mistake again by agreeing to let donors break bread with him in Downing Street, which is subject to exactly the same rules.

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Tories lurching from 'one City spiv to the next in their search for a Treasurer'